Hair-removal devices are well known in the art. The former mechanical devices with epilator discs for temporary hair removal are progressively replaced by electromagnetic energy emitting devices such as laser or pulsed-light epilators performing medium and long term epilation.
Originally, electromagnetic energy emitting devices such as laser or pulsed-light epilators were only used in clinics by educated professionals managing the possible security issues of such devices. The latest trend in the market of skin-treatment devices is miniaturization and recently, home-use devices have been commercialized moving skin treatments, and in particular light-epilation treatments, from a professional context into the home environment, where non-professional users operate in privacy. Since inappropriate handling of home-use devices can entail injuring like skin irritation, the safety aspect represents a real challenge for the manufacturers.
The private user is confronted with at least four parameters, namely the location and the intensity of the skin treatment as well as the associated frequency and interval. Additional parameters to be considered are the history of the skin exposure to UV light, the type of skin and the age of the applicant.
In this context, it was necessary to invent a system associating an epilation device with a management support for all those parameters allowing the private user to set up a safe and adequate treatment program for the epilation of various parts of his/her body.
Mobile phones, in particular the so called “smart phones” and “tablets”, the variety of screen sizes making the differentiation between “smart phones”, “tablets” of various sizes and “portable computer” difficult, are nowadays much more than just communication tools. A continuously-growing number of available applications (camera, GPS, agenda, etc.) and wireless communication (Bluetooth) with a series of manageable devices are now possible.
The wireless communication capacity of these devices therefore represents a major opportunity to achieve tailor-made systems to manage skin-treatment devices, and in particular electromagnetic energy emitting devices for hair-removal systems.
WO 2014/057481 A2 discloses a system for personal skin procedures based on the interaction of a camera-equipped portable computer with an electromagnetic energy emitting device, the extracted information from a taken picture of the skin being the basis for a computer analysis leading to a specific treatment of the skin.
WO 2012/052976 A1 and WO 2012/052975 A1 disclose methods and devices for monitoring the use of a pulsed-light skin-treatment device in order to avoid fraudulent use of said device regarding the number of flashes and the types of treatments actually performed. The described methods do not allow personal planning such as treatment frequency, adaptation to individual user's skin types and relevant processing areas.